Rebuilding Haiti: Relief efforts must focus on empowering citizens to help themselves

Courtesy of Bob HoodBob Hood works at a clinic in Haiti applying Permethrin to children infected with scabies.By Bob Hood
Cazenovia

While the world got to see life in Haiti immediately after the earthquake, the media are not exposing the incomprehensible living conditions that our Haitian sisters and brothers are having to cope with today. Three weeks ago I walked through one of 1,300 tent cities where more than a million homeless people are trying to survive.

Amid the crying of babies, the smiles of children and the overwhelming smells, more than 25,000 people were huddled together under wall-to-wall shelters, some with tents and many with sheets, blankets and cardboard held up by branches and crooked sticks. People were cooking over wood and charcoal, washing clothes and their bodies out of scarce buckets of water. Children were playing along the pathways between the rows of dwellings, and many were seeking shelter from the 95-degree sun.

And then it began to rain ... hard. Within 30 minutes and without adequate toilet facilities, sewage flowed with mud down the pathways and through many of the makeshift shelters.

I was in northern Haiti a week after the Jan. 12 earthquake, and we felt the 6.1-magnitude earthquake in the village of Thibeau. St. James Roman Catholic Church in Cazenovia has been twinned for eight years with our sister church of St. Ives, and although Thibeau suffered no direct damage, the area is experiencing an increase in refugees relocating from Port-au- Prince.

Over the years, St. James parishioners have supported safe water programs; constructed a church, rectory, school and community center; and supported hundreds of children attending school in the area. It has been a spiritually rewarding experience for our church, and we are now challenged as to how to best help with the refugee resettlement. Eastern Hills Bible Church in Manlius has recently made a generous contribution to expand the safe water program in Thibeau, and we look forward to partnering with them and sharing the gift of getting to know and serve these, the least of our sisters and brothers.

During my eight years and more than 30 trips, I have been working to create job opportunities that are hopefully teaching them to fish for themselves. It is destructive to one’s self-esteem and work ethic to receive money for support that serves to enable a person. Our government has destroyed Haiti’s local farmers by providing free or low-cost food.

Charity needs to develop into self-sustainability or people become dependent upon others, and good intentions end with bad results. Together with a foundation working in the area, we are creating fish farming; goat, rabbit and dairy cooperatives; literacy and library training; jam and jelly processing; and a carpentry shop. Our next step is to develop a computer classroom at our school.

Governments and non-governmental organizations, or NGOs, have a huge challenge and opportunity to build a sustainable Haiti. The lack of infrastructure, the corrupt and weak government and the cultural problems of the country make this challenge overwhelming. The task is not about “rebuilding” Haiti; it is about creating a Haiti that can one day begin to exist on its own.

The international community has enabled and crippled Haiti through its continuing charity and business dealings with the elite families who control Haiti, and the people of Haiti have suffered. It is unacceptable and a contradiction to our moral values that a country less than two hours from the richest country in the world has a population that is 65 percent illiterate, 70 percent unemployed with 80 percent living on less than $2 per day. Some parts of Haiti have an infant mortality rate of 25 percent, with one out of 10 dying in childbirth.

Haiti’s orphan population has more than doubled, and many children lost arms and legs in the earthquake. The number of children being forced into servitude is increasing. Parents are so desperate that they give their children to strangers who promise “a better life” for a child. Woman and child molestation has increased due to inadequate security and the huge numbers of people living on top of one another. Typhoid, malaria and diarrhea are increasing, as is the fear of an outbreak of cholera.

Port-au-Prince was designed for 1 million people. However, due to the centralization of all government offices, universities, hospitals, commerce, seminaries, etc, more than 2.5 million people were crammed into the capital city when the earthquake occurred. These services desperately need to be decentralized, creating employment and quality of life opportunities throughout the countryside. That has been our goal for eight years and it is now the goal of the international community. I pray that the Haitian government and the elite allow this goal to materialize.

Haiti is a beautiful Caribbean country, and the Haitian people have a spirit and a hope that inspires and warms your heart. They are worthy and deserving of your time. talent and treasures, and I invite you to learn more about how you can become involved in this amazing opportunity to serve your fellow man.

We are working in Thibeau to create a sustainable community model to show that through working alongside our Haitian sisters and brothers, they can learn to live on their own. They deserve no less than what we strive to teach our own children. We need all types of volunteers, including teachers, farmers, doctors, dentists, nurses, business people, contractors, teenagers and anyone who simply wants to help.

Bob Hood of Cazenovia is a member of the St. James Roman Catholic Church Haiti Committee. He will return to Haiti on Wednesday.